For a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, a cell search procedure is shown in FIG. 1, where a terminal at first searches for a Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) (see Step 101) and acquires a timing synchronization period of 5 ms in accordance with the PSS, and then searches for a Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS) (see Step 102) and achieve frame synchronization and acquire a cell identity (ID) in accordance with the SSS. Based on the above synchronization procedures, the terminal may acquire a Cell-Specific Reference Signal (CRS) (see Step 103), which is a common reference signal and may be used for channel estimation and demodulation as well as for cell measurement.
In the case that the terminal accesses to a cell, as a feasible method, the terminal may search for the cell as shown in FIG. 1 among a plurality of candidate target cells, measure Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of the CRS of each candidate target cell, and select and access to the cell with the optimal RSRP.
In a cellular system in the related art, antennae in an antenna array of a base station are usually arranged horizontally, and a beam from a transmitter of the base station may merely be adjusted in a horizontal direction, with a fixed down-tilt angle in a vertical direction. Along with the development of the antenna technology, an active antenna, each element of which is capable of being controlled independently, has been presented in the industry. Through this design, the antennae of the antenna array may be arranged in a three-dimensional (3D) manner, i.e., both horizontally and vertically, rather than in a two-dimensional (2D) manner, i.e., merely horizontally. Due to this kind of antenna array, it is possible to dynamically adjust the beams in the vertical direction. One important feature of a 3D Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) lies in that there are a large number of antennae (e.g., 8, 16, 32 or 64 antennae) at a base station side and these antennae are arranged in a 2D manner, as shown in FIGS. 2a to 2d. 
Along with the development of the based station antenna technology, especially the occurrence of the antennae arranged in the 3D manner (i.e., both horizontally and vertically), it is necessary to provide a corresponding cell measurement method, so as to achieve the cell measurement and acquire a more accurate cell measurement result, thereby to enable the terminal to select and access to an appropriate cell.